Notes  on  Indiana  Heronries 


BY  A.  W.  BUTLER. 


From  Proceedings  of  the  Academy  or  Science,  1897. 


.  B.  BU&YO&D,  HTDIAKAPO 


198 


NOTES  ON  INDIANA  HERONRIES.     BY  A.  W.  BUTLER. 

The  Great  Blue  Herons  have  for  years  been  known  to  breed  throughout 
the  State,  some  places  singly,  at  others  in  small  companies,  and  again  in 
considerable  numbers.  The  Black-crowned  Night  Heron  also  breeds  in 
heronries  often  near  to  or  included  in  a  nesting  community  of  the  last 
mentioned  species.  The  Yellow-crowned  Night  Heron  has  only  been  re- 
ported as  breeding  in  Knox  county,  where  it  attains  its  most  northern 
breeding  range.  There  Mr.  Robert  Ridgway  found  a  community  of  about 
a  hundred  pairs  nesting  in  the  tall  ash  and  sweet  gum  trees  in  a  creek 
bottom  near  Monteur's  Pond,  in  April,  1881.  From  the  same  vicinity  Mr. 
Ridgway  reported  the  Snowy  Heron  as  breeding.  The  American  Egret 
has  been  known  to  breed  in  the  lower  Wabash  Valley.  This  was  supposed 
to  be  its  most  northern  breeding  ground.  Late  in  the  summer,  after  the 
duties  to  the  family  were  done  they  were  supposed  to  wander  farther  to 
the  northward,  even  reaching  northern  Indiana,  Michigan  and  Ontario. 
This  supposition  seemed  to  be  further  borne  out  by  the  fact  that  there 
were,  with  very  few  exceptions,  no  records  north  of  southern  Indiana  at 
the  time  of  the  spring  migrations.  It  seemed  quite  unusual  that  they 
should  wander  northward  in  such  numbers  after  the  nesting  season,  con- 
sequently when  I  began  to  hear  of  one  or  two  pairs  being  found  in  com- 
pany with  some  colony  of  Great  Blue  Herons  I  was  prepared  to  believe 
that  if  the  right  locality  was  found  they  might  still  be  found  breeding 
in  some  numbers  in  the  northern  part  of  this  State,  provided  man's  agency 
had  not  in  some  way  destroyed  them. 


199 

In  Knox  and  (Gibson  counties  Mr..  Robert  Ridgway  reported  heronries 
and  noted  the  breeding  of  the  Great  Blue  Heron,  the  Snowy  Heron  and 
the  American  Egret. 

The  American  Egret,  according  to  Mr.  E.  J.  Chansler,  breeds  about 
Swan  and  Grassy  Ponds,  Daviess  county. 

Dr.  J.  T.  Scovell  reports  that  up  to  about  1881  or  1882  an  extensive 
heronry  of  the  American  Egret  was  to  be  found  in  the  Wabash  bottoms 
about  a  mile  west  of  Terre  Haute. 

Mr.  J.  F.  Elliott,  of  New  Harmony,  informs  me  of  a  heronry  at  Hovey's 
Pond,  Posey  county,  Indiana. 

There  is  no  record  of  any  heronries  in  southeastern  Indiana,  but  Dr. 
F.  W.  Langdon  reports  the  Great  Blue  Heron  as  breeding  along  the  Great 
Miami  River,  and  in  the'  neighboring  parts  of  Ohio.  Great  Blue  Herons 
have  been  reported  as  breeding  in  communities  about  ten  miles  south  of 
Frankfort,  in  Clinton  county,  where  they  were  noted  by  Mr.  E.  R.  Quick, 
A  small  colony  has  also  bred  regularly  at  the  mouth  of  the  Tippecanoe 
River,  above  Lafayette,  but  when  it  was  visited  in  May,  1897,  but  one  or 
two  pairs  were  found  as  lone  remnants  of  the  former  community. 

In  Carroll  county,  Prof.  B.  W.  Evermann  speaks  of  two  large  heron- 
ries and  one  small  one.  He  found  as  many  as  thirteen  nests  on  one  tree 
at  one  place  and  many  other  trees  contained  from  three  to  ten  nests  each. 
(The  Auk,  October,  1888,  p.  347).  They  are  also  reported  to  have  formerly 
bred  in  colonies  in  Dekalb  county,  and  investigation  may  show  that  they 
still  do  so. 

Prof.  A.  W.  Bitting  reports  a  small  heronry  of  about  one  hundred  nests 
in  southern  Marshall  county,  on  an  island  in  the  Tippecanoe  River,  at  a 
locality  called  the  Millpond.  These  were  Great  Blue  Herons  and  he  saw 
them  in  1891.  The  same  observer  informs  me  that  up  to  about  1890  there 
was  a  heronry  of  twenty-five  or  thirty  nests  of  the  American  Egret  in  the 
Preston  Swamp,  in  the  same  county,  about  two  miles  north  of  the  one  he 
first  mentions. 

There  is  a*  heronry  of  Great  Blue  Herons  at  Golden  Lake,  in  Steuben 
county,  and  one  at  Wolf  Lake,  in  Noble  county,  at  each  of  which,  accord- 
ing to  Mr.  H.  W.  McBride,  occasional  pairs  of  American  Egrets  have  been 
found  breeding. 

Mr.  R.  B.  Trouslot  wrote  me  of  a  visit  he  made  to  "Cranetown,  in 
Jasper  county,  in  April,  1887.  At  that  time  he  estimated  there  were  thou- 
sands of  Great  Blue  Herons  nesting,  and  he  saw  a  few  American  Egrets. 


200 

Mr.  Ruthven  Deane  has  favored  me  with  several  notes  on  a  heronry 
called  "Crane  Heaven,"  near  English  Lake,  Starke  county,  which,  on 
March  18,  1894,  he  described  as  being  occupied  almost  exclusively  by 
Great  Blue  Herons,  though  quite  a  number  of  Black  Crowned  Night 
Herons  always  breed  there. 

Mr.  Charles  Dury,  Cincinnati,  has  also  informed  me  of  a  heronry  at 
English  Lake,  which  may  be  the  same  one. 

Mr.  J.  G.  Parker,  Jr.,  of  Chicago,  informs  me  of  a  large  colony  of 
Great  Blue  Herons  on  the  Kankakee  River,  nine  miles  south  of  Kouts, 
Indiana,  where,  on  April  14,  1894,  he  reports  the  heronries  filled  with  birds 
nesting.  I  am  indebted  to  Mr.  Parker,  and  also  to  Mr.  F.  M.  Woodruff, 
of  the  Chicago  Academy  of  Science,  for  notes  furnished  me  concerning 
heronies  in  Porter  county,  Indiana.  The  accounts 'given  refer  to  different 
dates,  but  whether  the  locality  referred  to  is  the  same  I  am  at  present 
unable  to  say.  Mr.  Woodruff  says  that  Mr.  Charles  Eldridge  found  the 
American  Egret  breeding  at  Kouts,  Indiana,  in  May,  1885,  and  took  a 
large  number  of  their  eggs.  He  found  their  nests  in  the  same  trees  with 
those  of  the  Great  Blue  Heron.  He  concludes:  "I  visited  the  heronries 
last  June,  1896,  and  did  not  see  a  single  specimen  of  *the  American  Egret. 
In  the  fall  of  1895  a  terrible  fire  swept  through  the  timber  along  the 
Kankakee  River,  which  probably  accounts  for  the  depopulated  state  of 
the  heronries." 

Mr.  Parker  says  Mr.  George  Wilcox  found  quite  a  number  of  Ameri- 
can Egrets  breeding  in  a  heronry  with  the  Great  Blue  Heron,  near  Kouts, 
Indiana,  during  May,  1895.  Mr.  Parker  himself  visited  the  place  in  the 
spring  of  1896  and  found  only  a  few  of  the  latter  species  occupying  the 
heronry.  He  thinks  the  small  number  of  birds  found  was  due  to  the  fact 
that  a  heavy  fire  swept  through  the  timber  in  the  fall  of  1895. 

Mr.  C.  E.  Aiken,  of  Salt  Lake  City,  Utah,  who  has  made  many  valuable 
observations  on  the  birds  of  northern  Illinois  and  northwestern  Indiana, 
as  well  as  of  Colorado,  has  very  kindly  given  me  an  account  of  a  visit  to 
a  heronry  known  as  "Crane  Heaven,"  occupying  thirty  or  fortf  acres  along 
the  Kankakee  River,  some  twenty  miles  above  Water  Valley.  The  time 
of  his  visit  was  in  May,  1886.  He  says:  "The  locality  is  a  timbered  plot 
of  ground,  being  submerged  with  twelve  to  eighteen  inches  of  water  at 
the  time  of  our  visit.  At  our  approach,  upon  the  discharge  of  a  gun,  the 
birds  rose  with  a  noise  like  thunder  and  hovered  in  hundreds  above  the 


201 

tree-tops.  They  were  of  three  species,  the  Great  Blue  Heron  (Ardea  hero- 
<//'/*;.  the  Black  Crowned  Night  Heron  (Nycticorax  nycticorax  nceviusj, 
comprising  the  majority,  but  the  beautiful  white  plumage  of  the  American 
Egret  (Ardea  egretta)  was  conspicuous  through  the  feathered  cloud,  and 
these  birds  were  quite  numerous.  Nearly  all  the  trees  throughout  the  belt 
were  loaded  with  nests,  those  of  the  first  two  species  named  being  found 
upon  the  same  tree,  but  the  latter  birds  appeared  to  build  in  little  groups 
by  themselves.  We  did  not  climb  to  examine  the  nests,  but  most  of  them 
appeared  to  contain  young  birds.  Many  of  the  trees  were  dead,  apparently 
from  the  effects  of  the  birds  building  and  roosting  upon  them." 

It  is  probable  that  some  of  these  heronries  along  the  Kankakee  are 
referred  to  twice  in  the  references  I  have  made.  At  present  I  am  unable 
to  decide  this  matter.  It  is  likewise  very  probable  that  there  exists  heron- 
ries on  the  Kankakee  within  our  limits  of  which  we  know  nothing.  In 
this  paper  I  have  desired  to  bring  to  your  attention,  so  far  as  I  know  it, 
the  location  of  the  former  or  existing  heronries  in  Indiana  in  the  hope 
that  we  may  be  able  to  locate  all  such  sites  as  exist  or  have  existed  within 
the  State. 

This  little  article  has  served  to  acquaint  you  with  the  extension  of  the 
known  breeding  range  of  the  American  Egret  northward  for  a  distance 
equal  to  the  whole  length  of  the  State  of  Indiana,  and  we  find  at  the 
northern  part  of  this  breeding  range  that  they  have  been  found  nesting 
in  considerable  numbers.  Since  this  fact  has  been  ascertained  and  we 
have  been  able  to  note  the  arrival  of  these  birds  at  their  breeding  ground 
in  the  spring,  we  found  their  absence  during  the  period  of  the  spring  mi- 
grations was  only  apparent,  and  that  evidently  their  vernal  pilgrimages 
are  made  at  night,  and  consequently,  although  they  may  be  found  in  num- 
bers at  their  nesting  sites,  it  is  very  rarely,  indeed,  that  they  are  to  be 
seen  at  this  season  of  the  year  en  route  to  their  summer  homes. 


ETURN     NA 
!<)••».    40    

LOAN  PERIOD      T"2 


6RA 

Tel.  Ner*  642-4493 


BOOKS  MAY  BE  RECALLED  AFTER  7  DAYS 
STAMPED  BELQwT 


""•MO.  ^  », 


PAT.  JAN. 


RKELEY  LIBRARIES 


IDDb^fllBOB 


Ai 


1RARY 

Q 


UNIVERSITY  OF  CALIFORNIA  LIBRARY 


